MAN OF THE YEAR: We Belong to the West

On a mild morning last April, a band
of dignitaries gathered before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in
Arlington National Cemetery. In the place of honor stood a tall old
man whose somber mask of a face looked stiffly ahead. Before him,
stretching to the hilltop, was an array of granite pillars, blocks and
crosses  the graves of Americans who had died in two wars with
Germany. Behind him fluttered the black, red and gold flag of the
Federal Republic of Germany.

The U.S. Army band sounded The Star-Spangled Banner. Then it broke into
the measured strains of Deutschland über Alles. "This,"
murmured the old man, "is a turning point in history."

More dramatically than headline or speech or essay, the music symbolized
an amazing story. In 1953, only eight years after the shame, horror and
impotence of defeat in mankind's bloodiest war, Germany came back. It
was a world power once more. More than any other, the person who
brought this about was the stolid old man who stood in Arlington,
visibly moved by the strains of his national anthem echoing among the
tombstones. He was Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the West German
Republic, apostle of United Europe, 1953's Man of the Year.

Konrad Adenauer had already guided the hated land of the Hun and the
Nazi back to moral respectability and had earned himself a seat in the
highest councils of the Western powers. Though she still lacked a
formal peace treaty, and the Iron Curtain fenced her off from half her
land and from 18 million countrymen, Konrad Adenauer's West Germany
last year emerged as the strongest country on the Continent save Soviet
Russia.

Her conquerors wooed her for her favors. Neighbors who had helped
defeat her so short a time ago talked fearfully once more of her new
strength and her even greater potential. Her economy glowed with
health. Her products cascaded into the world's markets. In September
came an election which the whole world nervously watched, to see
whether the oil of democracy could mix with the vinegar of German
authoritarianism. The West German voters swept all their Communists and
Nazis out of national office and overwhelmingly put their faith in the
dedicated, firm-handed democrat, Konrad Adenauer. No longer the passive
object of other forces, Germany in 1953 was again one of the formidable
forces of history and Konrad Adenauer one of history's makers.

"This year," said the Man of the Year, "is the year in which the
re-emergence of Germany . . . changed the world picture."